


Shared Nightmares

by hergan416



Category: One Piece
Genre: Nightmares, discussion of canon-compliant violence, platonic relationship/friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:53:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23144986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hergan416/pseuds/hergan416
Summary: Neither Robin nor Law can sleep the whole night through. Through their late night discussions, they reach an understanding.
Relationships: Nico Robin & Trafalgar D. Water Law
Comments: 12
Kudos: 63





	Shared Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Robin-Law challenge on the MF discord server.

Robin has had nightmares about the Buster Call that destroyed Ohara ever since she escaped her fate. Sometimes it’s just the kids back home that picked on her and called her a devil child, all in the rescue boat and dying because she  _ might  _ have made it on board, sometimes it’s the burning of the Tree of Life, sometimes it’s Saul’s laughing face as Akoiji froze him solid.

At first, Robin would wake crying from her nightmares, having thrashed the blankets about and nearly knocked herself out of bed. She’d have to force herself to laugh, remembering Saul’s final actions and philosophy on life as she did so. Hysterics for hysterics.

But, decades of living with people as cover had gotten her out of the practice. Noone wanted to keep a strong fighter that  _ also  _ kept everyone else up at night. Robin by now had it down to a science. She couldn’t help the nightmares, but she’d figured out how to wake up in time to avoid thrashing, crying, and laughing. Instead she’d take three deep breaths and try to sleep again.

If the nightmares would chain together, as they had tonight, she’d get up and take a walk around the deck of the Sunny, call to whomever was on watch, and head to the kitchen to grab one of the numerous extra snacks that Sanji would prepare “just in case” especially for the ladies.

She didn’t call out to the watchman (Usopp) tonight, however, because she knew they had a visitor on deck, sound asleep sitting up: Trafalgar Law. He’d been traveling with the crew for a few weeks now, ever since Luffy and Law had struck an alliance to take down Kaido while on Punk Hazard. So instead she waved dramatically, made a “quiet” gesture, and pointed towards Law before quietly tiptoeing into the kitchen to do her thing.

She wondered about Law’s reasons for sleeping on deck, and if they were similar to her own when she had briefly joined the revolutionary army after escaping Tequila Wolf. It wasn’t really her business.

A shuffling behind her as she entered the kitchen had her turning around, hands immediately crossing her chest defensively, intending to use her powers if need be. She relaxed when she realized that it was only Trafalgar Law, who seemed to have woken anyway, despite her best efforts.

She didn’t know much about the man, aside from their brief interactions and what she had read in the newspaper. He had helped to cure the children on Punk Hazard, though whatever Chopper had seen him doing when he tried to do so had freaked him out, so she knew the process was likely gruesome, if ultimately effective. She knew he’d also fought alongside Luffy on Sabaody when Luffy had punched a Celestial Dragon, and had been the sole reason Luffy had a fighting chance at surviving Marinford, having arrived in his submarine shortly after Luffy’s injury and treating him as they all escaped.

She wondered if he had been planning this alliance then, or his excuses were accurate, that things would be boring without Luffy in them. Perhaps, she thought, it was a little of both.

She had been moving to make herself tea as she mused about their new ally and his origins. As it got close to being done she offered some to him. “Tea?”

He shook his head, pointing to the coffee that he was already making and shrugging. Robin just nodded and finished pouring a glass of the substance.

“Did I wake you up?” she asked once they were both seated across from each other at the kitchen table.

“No,” Law said, gritting his teeth and sipping his coffee like a lifeline. Robin fell quiet as it seemed her attempts at conversation were unwanted. Law was prickly, it seemed.

Some coffee seemed to help calm the man, however, and he spoke voluntarily a few moments later.

“You accepted Luffy’s decision to fight Kaido without question,” he stated, an opening to an unfinished question. “Including my involvement on this ship and as an ally.”

“Luffy seems to have a better judge of character than my own,” Robin answered cryptically. “I will follow his lead on who to trust. He hasn’t steered us wrong yet.”

Law frowned. “What makes you say that?” he asks. “He is far more trusting than sane,” he argued as though it was one of the few certainties he’d seen in the last few weeks. Perhaps to him it was.

“I would not have included myself among this crew, if I were him,” she countered, stone-faced. Then she laughed a little. “But it was a good thing that he did.”

Law frowned again.

“Why are you a warlord?” Robin asked, changing the subject abruptly. “I know what you did to get to be one, but why choose to?”

Law grunted, shrugging. “It gives me and my crew freedom to do as we please.”

“Yet you defy the government with  _ these  _ actions,” Robin replied. “You certainly don’t seem fond of them.”   
  
Law grunted. “I’m not. But it’s necessary.” 

Law stood, seeming done with his coffee, and returned to the Sunny’s bridge, settling down with his back to one of the masts, hat drooping down over his eyes as he closed them. He looked stressed to Robin, who walked past him once she’d finished her tea and decided to go back to the girls dorm to try to sleep a little longer. She smiled fondly at the man her captain had decided would be their new friend.

* * *

It was becoming routine, almost. He’d wake from his nightmares, certain someone would have woken up from him calling out in the night, to find the watchman asleep, and the only one awake on the ship Nico Robin, who seemed to have a very similar sleep schedule. (Though he had never heard  _ her  _ calling out in the night).

She’d make tea, he’d make coffee, and they would chat about nothing as soon as he felt awake enough to do so without snapping. The first conversation had been by far the most personal, and they’d strayed away from such topics since. He could tell she was still curious; she was a curious person by nature, it seemed, but too polite to pry. Recently, their conversations had turned to books. Robin constantly was reading about the history of the world or a given region, but also read other subjects: science, literature, politics, that Law could easily converse with her about.

“What have you been reading now?” Law asked by way of greeting her and letting her know that he was ready to talk.

“A history of the island of Flevance,” she replied, as stone-faced as ever, but Law thought that he’d detected a hint of emotion behind her eyes. He couldn’t totally hide the emotion from his own eyes, so settled on widened surprise.

“Oh?” he asked, hoping his voice seemed neutral enough.

“It’s terrible,” she replied. “I can’t believe they destroyed the island, even if the disease was contagious.”

Law didn’t trust himself to speak, so just swallowed. The book obviously had some misinformation in it, but he wasn’t going to go out of his way to correct it. He’d already buried that part of his past when he ate the Op-Op fruit and cured himself from the poison.

“Actually,” Robin continued, filling the silence as she locked eyes with Law, “I  _ can  _ believe it. It was inconvenient to the government that it existed, was it not?”

And Law realized in this moment, that as a Warlord of the Sea, Robin was indirectly looking to him for a defense of the government. A defense of the government for the destruction of his whole town, for burning his parents alive, for shooting every single kid that the good Sister had tried to save and the nun along with them.

“It certainly was  _ inconvenient  _ for the government,” Law replied harshly, glaring at Robin. “So  _ inconvenient  _ to mention that the disease was really a poison, that removing the lead build up in the bodies could  _ cure it. _ Don’t believe every fucking thing you read in a book.”

Law downed the rest of his coffee, burning his mouth and throat, and not caring, angrily standing and walking away, returning to his post outside the ship. He didn’t bother to wait for Robin’s reaction. He could give a shit less what the woman thought at this point, despite their previous camaraderie.

Still, Law wasn’t entirely surprised when a few moments later, Robin sat next to him silently. He pointedly looked away, not willing to hear her apologies when she wasn’t even sure what was wrong.

He should have known better.

“I don’t know what you know of me,” she began, her voice calm and even as always. It was irritating. “But I am from an island called Ohara. Ohara is--was,” she corrected, and Law began to pay more attention, “a country of scholars. Archeologists, the only ones who knew how to read the poneglyphs. My mother’s dream was to learn the truth of the world, and left the country when I was two to find the poneglyphs and study them. She never succeeded.”

Robin was so matter of fact about the whole thing, it was eerie. “The government hunted her and the other researchers on her dig down. They traced them back to the island of Ohara, and destroyed everything, and everyone. I escaped.”

Law glanced at her, still silent. “So I also know what happens when groups of people become inconvenient,” she concluded, and Law wondered just how much she  _ knew  _ about him before this conversation. Had this been the goal all along? To corner him and force him to admit his connection to Flevance.

“I didn’t realize it was a sore subject before I spoke. I will not bring it up again.” So much for that theory. She sounded genuinely sorry, and concerned, and he finally faced her fully. There was emotion there, hidden behind the surface of her eyes. She didn’t express herself nearly as plainly as the rest of the Straw Hats, but he could read her well enough. It had been an honest mistake.

Law grunted his acknowledgement. “I imagine that we keep the same sleep schedules because we face the same challenges when we sleep,” he replied in acknowledgement. “You are right that I’d prefer not to be reminded while I am awake.”

Robin nodded her acknowledgement back, and the pair fell into a companionable silence, no longer tense with irritation and sorrow. When morning came, it found them both fast asleep with their backs to the main mast, their friendship and understanding solidified.


End file.
